SLIS Honors Top Alumni, Students, Friends at Annual Event

Celebrations Held in Columbus & Kent

The School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at Kent State University honored its top alumni, distinguished friends, outstanding students and recent graduates at its annual Celebration of Alumni and Student Success receptions in and Columbus (March 28) and Kent (April 13).

William C. Barrow, M.L.S. ’98, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, received the Library and Information Science (LIS) Alumnus of the Year award, presented to a library and information science graduate who has made a significant contribution to the profession. Barrow is Head of Special Collections in the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University. He was instrumental in helping to create the Cleveland Memory Project and more recently has worked with the Ohio Outdoor Sculpture Inventory. Barrow has hosted more than 70 interns, mostly from Kent State SLIS, who have contributed to Cleveland Memory Project. Read more.

Edwin K. Morris, M.S. ’12, of Olean, N.Y., received the IAKM Alumnus of the Year award, presented to an information architecture and knowledge management (IAKM) graduate who has made a significant contribution to the profession. Morris is the founder and president of Pioneer Knowledge Services and a part-time instructor in knowledge management at Kent State. In 2013 he had received the Thomas J. Froehlich Award from the school, in recognition of "academic excellence and promise for leadership in the field of information architecture and knowledge management." Read more.

Thomas J. Froehlich, Ph.D., of Kent, Ohio, was named the School of Library and Information Science Friend of the Year, an honor presented to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the profession and the School. Froehlich established and was the first director of the school’s Information Architecture and Knowledge Management (IAKM) master’s degree program, which began in 2001; he retired from SLIS in 2015 after 27 years of service and has been named emeritus professor. Read more.

David Todd, M.L.I.S. ’15, of Cleveland, Ohio, received the August Alpers Award, given to a library and information science graduate who contributed the most to the school as a student while maintaining a good grade point average. In addition to the M.L.I.S. degree, he has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from The Ohio State University, a master’s degree in dramatic writing from New York University and a doctorate degree in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed his practicum in academic librarianship and information literacy at John Carroll University and is currently a lecturer in English at Cleveland State University. His career goal is to obtain a position in an academic library.

Kristin Bugnitz, M.L.I.S. ’15, of Columbus, Ohio, received the Dan Maclachlan School Library Media Award for library and information science graduates who have exhibited creativity, leadership and dedication to the K-12 audience. She also holds an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Notre Dame and currently works as the Library Media Specialist at Tremont Elementary School in Upper Arlington, Ohio.

Danielle Zenira Maynard, M.L.I.S. ’15, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, received the H.F. Group Preservation Award, presented to individuals who demonstrate outstanding scholarship and an interest in the area of library preservation. In addition to the M.L.I.S., Maynard she holds an undergraduate degree in art history from Wayne State University as well as a Master of Arts from Case Western Reserve University.

Desiree Thomas, M.L.I.S. ’15, of Mansfield, Ohio, received the Janice Smuda Children’s Librarianship Award, presented to a library and information science graduate who, as a student, demonstrated creativity, leadership and dedication to children’s librarianship through outstanding academic achievement.  Her undergraduate degree in English is from The Ohio State University. She currently works as the Youth Services Supervisor at the Driving Park branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library and serves on the advisory board for Choose to Read Ohio.

Martha Balash, M.S. ’15, of Norton, Ohio, received the Thomas J. Froehlich Award, presented to a graduate in information architecture and knowledge management (IAKM) who has demonstrated academic excellence and promise for leadership in the field. Balash earned her Master of Science in IAKM with a concentration in Health Informatics. Additionally, she holds a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Akron. Currently, she is a Senior Clinical Systems Analyst at Summa Health System where she manages the application for Meaningful Use Quality Measures and the application for Case Management.

The events in Columbus and Kent also recognized recent student scholarship recipients, as well as graduates from August and December 2015 and May 2016. For more information:

POSTED: Wednesday, May 24, 2017 03:03 PM
Updated: Thursday, December 8, 2022 10:05 PM